Xander's 1st Birthday Party

This past Saturday, we hosted a little party in our home to celebrate X's 1st birthday.
Unfortunately, we didn't have family or other close friends around, but the people who turned up for this special day were wonderful :)

We woke up at our usual time of 5.30am, thanks to the super unrelenting internal clock that X has. Unfortunately he doesn't understand the concept of "weekends are for sleeping in and resting" :p
So we starting cooking and tidying up the apartment and putting up balloons.
All while juggling X's breakfast time, changing diapers, entertaining him, cuddling him, etc.
Then he took his usual morning nap at about 8.45, while his daddy drove out to collect his birthday cake.
After settling him, more cooking!

On the menu was:
Chicken curry
Basmati rice
Baguette
Couscous salad
Coleslaw
Potato salad
Party pies
Dim sum
Potato wedges
Fish fingers
Fruit platter

It was a big big effort, but everything was ready by 11am when everyone started arriving :)
Super proud of myself and baby. I credit my F&B and events experience :p

We mingled and chased the birthday boy around and took pictures and ate and enjoyed ourselves for the next hour.
I brought out the polaroid cameras that my cousins and sisters gave me and everyone had a blast of a time playing with it and taking photos. Especially the 2 kids! They were fascinated. I don't think they've seen anything like it before :)

At the end of the day, they got to take whatever shots they liked home with them.
The remaining ones will be added to his 1st birthday card from us, along with a written letter.

Derinsu even asked if she could take the camera back with her :p
According to her "but they have 2!".
Kids are the cutest things :)

Then we brought out the birthday cake, lighted the candles and sang him a birthday song. He just sat there and looked puzzled, more fascinated with the cake and candles than anything else.

Then we cut him a slice of cake and let him go at it - all he did was smashed it and dumped it on the floor! What a perfect waste of a yummy cake. He was way more interested in getting to the plate that the cake was on :p



Before we knew it, it was time for his afternoon nap. Half of the people left while I was feeding and settling him, the other half hung around chit-chatting till X woke up and it was time to open presents.


Kelly and Eric, who have been 2 of the most constant people around him during this first year of his life, rocked up with an amazing present for X, who doesn't seem to appreciate it as yet, but I'm sure it will be hanging around for the next few years at least :)
Then there's Vernon and Shuhying with their very generous red packet, Ebru and her daughter Derinsu also with a big present which was a hit with the birthday boy, and Tami and her son Carlos who very sweetly drew a card for X and brought presents for X. Their toy handphone is a huge hit with him too :)

All in all, it was a wonderful day with lovely friends for company. I loved that it was a simple and small affair, and that it was short and sweet. No one was tired out and stressed out, and we had plenty of leftover for dinner, meaning the morning spent cooking was more than worth it :)